


Makeup 101

by monodramatic



Series: FE Trans Week [3]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: (hilda), (lorenz), Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bigender Character, Gen, Nonbinary Character, Platonic Relationships, Trans Female Character, could also be canon setting?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:15:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25362973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/monodramatic/pseuds/monodramatic
Summary: She stands in front of Lorenz, staring at them, trying to decide what to make of them, maybe? Lorenz stares back, feeling their throat grow tighter and their heartbeat pick up speed. Finally, after a much too long silence, she speaks.“Ugh. You’re too tall. I’m gonna have to stand.”Written for FE Trans Week Day 3: Makeover + Friends
Relationships: Lorenz Hellman Gloucester & Hilda Valentine Goneril
Series: FE Trans Week [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1833490
Comments: 6
Kudos: 24
Collections: Fire Emblem Trans Week 2020!





	Makeup 101

**Author's Note:**

> so this was actually the first piece i wrote for trans week! the claurenz server got me hooked on the idea of bigender lorenz, ive recently started to really love hilda, and i just think these two should be friends. i really love makeup so i just took this one and ran with it, and before i knew it, it was 2k. so here. take it.

_I shouldn’t be doing this. I know I shouldn’t. But I want to. Is that bad? Everything is just… so confusing. Maybe this will help? If it helps it can’t be wrong, right?_

It’s too late to back out now. Lorenz is in Hilda’s dorm, perched nervously on the edge of her bed while Hilda all but dumps out her makeup kit onto the end table in an effort to organize everything.

She stands in front of Lorenz, staring at them, trying to decide what to make of them, maybe? Lorenz stares back, feeling their throat grow tighter and their heartbeat pick up speed. Finally, after a much too long silence, she speaks.

“Ugh. You’re too tall. I’m gonna have to stand.”

Well that breaks the tension a little bit. Lorenz feels their shoulders sag just a little as Hilda tosses them a hair tie. They hastily put their hair up in a messy bun, and dimly realizes they feel _alarmingly_ naked without their usual curtain of hair. All they can hope for is that Hilda doesn’t comment on their clammy skin from being so nervous.

“So I’m gonna assume you at least know a _little_ about makeup. You’re too pretty not to.” Lorenz flushes a bit at the compliment. They’ve played around with mascara and concealer to cover up pimples, but nothing more than that. They hardly think that qualifies though.

Hilda starts swatching foundations, painting lines from Lorenz’s cheekbone to jaw. “You know, you should be happy you have me. When I -- oh, here we go -- when I transitioned I looked like such a _clown_!” She selects the foundation with the closest match and pours a bit onto the back of her hands, dabbing the wider end of a wedge-shaped sponge in it.

“You have really nice skin, you know that? You look like you moisturize.”

“Oh. Um. Thank you?” The feeling of the sponge patting against their skin is almost soothing in a way. They start to think they could get used to this. 

The powder? Not so much. The patting motion is very much the same, but this just feels like a mess. Hilda stands back to look at Lorenz’s face in full, not that Lorenz can see that with their eyes closed, and decides to give just a few more pats with the powder puff. Just for good measure. And also because she thinks it’s a little funny.

Hilda turns to the end table again to grab a fluffy brush. “Okay, you can open your eyes now.” Lorenz thinks it’s frankly a little silly that Hilda has so many brushes. They keep looking over at the end table as Hilda begins to dust off the excess powder. _Most of these brushes just look the same, there’s no way she needs all of them._

“You’re pretty pale, so you’re gonna want to use a peach-toned blush. Pink will wash you out, orange and red will just look stupid.” She picks up a different fluffy brush -- it looks almost identical to the other one? -- and swirls it around the compact in her hand, before gently brushing it high on Lorenz’s already high cheekbones.

_Isn’t this a bit higher than blush is supposed to go?_

“Okay, who’s the expert here?”  
Oh. They said that out loud.

She turns to the end table again and pulls out a large palette, opening it up and holding it up to Lorenz’s face. Eyeshadow, they guess. Apparently unsatisfied, she pulls out a smaller palette. And then another. And then one more. This one seems to work at least, because she pulls out a small angled brush -- this one looks different -- and goes to pick up a color from the top corner before beginning to fill in Lorenz’s eyebrows.

“So there are a lot of eyebrow products out there, but I usually have to settle for eyeshadow since I have pink hair, and you’ll probably have to settle too if you still want your brows to match your hair. Use liquid lipstick if you’re going out dancing though, the eyeshadow will sweat off. Also eyebrows are sisters, not twins. Don’t get weird if they don’t look exactly the same; good enough is good enough.”

Lorenz is starting to really appreciate all this advice. Maybe Hilda calling herself an expert wasn't too far off. They’ve never seen her without makeup on unless she’s just woken up or showered, so she has to have been doing this at least for a few years now. Hilda snaps the palette shut with a loud click and picks up one of the other palettes she discarded earlier, but this time she can’t quite get it open.

“Ugh I hate trying to do this with nails.”  
“Do you want me to-”  
“Yes.”

She practically shoves the palette at Lorenz and they also struggle for a few seconds before managing to pop it open. This one only has nine shadows in it, some shimmer, some matte, all neutrals. Hilda grabs the palette back, acrylics clicking against the plastic. _It would be hard to do much with nails that long. No wonder she’s always using that excuse, it might actually be true._

“Usually it’s best to start with nudes and then do more color as you get used to wearing makeup more.” She picks up a couple colors onto another small brush, this one slightly fluffier than the last. “Okay, eyes closed. If you do too much color right away you could look too different too quickly.”

Hilda starts to work on Lorenz’s eyes, making a small v shape on the outside, then arcing into the space between their eyeball and eye socket. It’s hard not to twitch at the soft pressure on their eyes, but Lorenz does their best to keep still. 

“Keep ‘em closed until I tell you.” She moves onto the other eye, then Lorenz hears a little bit of rustling before feeling the brush on their eyes again. Probably a different color. She pats this one in the general middle of their eyes before Lorenz hears her click the palette shut and set it down on the bed next to them.

“This next one might be a little… Cold?” _Well that’s reassuring._ “This is liquid eyeshadow. It’s good for glitter without the glitter.”

Okay, this one _is_ a little cold. The brush (Applicator? Probably not a brush if it’s liquid) feels different too. Lorenz reflexively flinches away and Hilda plants her other hand firmly on their head to keep them still. This one goes from the center of their eyelid towards their nose. Hilda repeats on the other eye before taking a step back to look at her work from a distance.

“Can I open my eyes now?”  
“Nope!”

There’s a strange sound Lorenz can’t quite place, followed by a slight breeze against their face and a rhythmic flapping sound.

“What are you doing?”  
“Fanning you. It makes everything dry quicker.”

The breeze stops.

“Okay, it’s _really_ important you stay still for this next part.”

_Great._

She sets down what Lorenz assumes is the fan before picking up something else and opening it with a pop. She draws a precise line from the outside corner of one of Lorenz’s eyes, before doing the same to the other. _She must have really steady hands._ She moves to the inner corner of that eye and draws another steady line connecting to the first one. She presses the tip parallel to Lorenz’s eyelid to start filling in the shape.

“There are a lot of different kinds of eyeliner. I like felt tip ‘cause it’s kinda like a marker. Pencil can get fuzzy pretty quickly, and liquid eyeliner lasts a long time but it’s just a mess to deal with.” She moves to the other eye. “A lot of people like gel eyeliner but I haven’t tried that kind yet.” And there’s the fan again. “This would take _wayyyyy_ longer to dry if it was liquid.” The fanning stops. “You can open your eyes now.”

Lorenz has to blink a couple times at the sudden light. Nothing feels wet anymore, so they’re pretty sure they haven’t smudged anything. Hilda has gone back to digging in her kit trying to find something, evidently she hadn’t dumped out _all_ of it. She finally pulls out a thin tube, which Lorenz recognizes as mascara, and begins to unscrew the cap.

“I can do this one myself.”  
“Yeah, but that ruins the surprise! Eyes up.”

They cross their arms but still do as she says. Really, she could be more delicate with this, but by now Lorenz knows not to question her. She pulls the brush away and Lorenz moves their eyes back to look forwards.

“I should’ve _probably_ curled your lashes first but let’s be real, nobody is going to notice.” She pulls out a shorter tube, pops the top off, and screws the base up to reveal a soft pink lipstick. _This is the last step, isn’t it?_

“So I’m gonna use something pretty similar to your natural lip color. Lipstick takes some getting used to, so it won’t be a huge deal if this one rubs off. Relax your mouth.” 

They didn’t realize how much they had tensed up. This is the last thing. It _has_ to be the last thing. This is the only part of their face she hasn’t done anything to yet. There’s no going back after this is over. Lorenz does their best to relax as Hilda gently dabs the lipstick onto the center of their lips.

“You know, I really hope you like this. Maybe I can finally stop putting makeup on Claude now. The foundation just gets in his beard.” Lorenz pulls away to giggle at the image of their boyfriend in Hilda’s makeup. “Really though. I know you haven’t been happy for a while -- rub your lips together -- and I actually _want_ to help you. Isn’t that weird? It would’ve been really nice to have someone to help me figure all this out. Okay, take your hair down. Plus you get to be the tall girl! I wanted to be the tall girl _so bad!_ ” She runs her fingers through Lorenz’s hair a couple times before stepping back to take one last look.

“So, are you ready?”  
 _Are they?_  
“Um. Yes.”  
 _Well that answers that._

She walks over to her dresser and stands onto her toes a little to grab a hand mirror from the top, making a big show of holding the mirror side against her chest. At this angle, Lorenz can’t see their reflection in her vanity mirror either, so they really have no idea what they look like. She stands in front of them and takes a deep breath -- _is she nervous too?_ \-- before finally flipping the mirror around and letting Lorenz have a look.

At first they’re not sure how to feel. It takes a second to register that they're looking at their own reflection. This person looks so different. Brown and gold eyeshadow, slightly rosy cheeks and lips, manicured eyebrows, eyeliner that’s thick but not _too_ thick. It’s… Exhilarating. The person in the reflection blinks a couple times before a shy smile spreads across their face.

Lorenz begins to look at themselves from different angles. They look so confident. They _feel_ so confident. Hilda can barely contain her excitement at their reaction. Lorenz thinks they could get used to looking like this. They didn’t even know they _could_ look like this. They feel Hilda plop down onto the bed next to them and give an impressively tight squeeze around their waist. Lorenz sets the mirror down before returning the hug.

  
“Thank you.”  
“Anytime. I mean it.”


End file.
